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Union of Free Ungerdaler Princes
General The Union of the Undergalen free princess or the Union or the Undegalen princes is a major Nation in Irenthar, that is currently in development. it as a whole, borders Ordoria and the Bergialer Kingdoms in the North and Perkvaland in the south and the great oceans in the east and west. The current Monarch of the Union is Faustburg. History -1100 to -600: The Age of Aether -720 to ~582: Ordorian Colonization At this point in time, Ordoria conquered and ruled the lands, that would become the Ungerdaler Union, relying on magic for power projection and running of the economy. They hunted down human wizards, driving them underground, where they would become a key part of the resistance. there was little distinction between Perkavland and the Union before this and as the conquest progressed it brought steel, laws and architecture to the Ungerdaler people. The Elves played out local identitarian hostilities towards each other, and although all cultures under their grasp grew distinct from Perkavland, the Ordorians made sure there were also internal divisions as well. Holzbrenn fell first, with the barren lands of Schneefilde being the last to be conquered. There were grand plans for colonization by Ordoria, but the Age of Void interrupted this. -600 to 0: The Age of Void -ca. -582 to 169: the Shattered Centuries Magic retreats from the world, collapsing the Ordorian empire and sending it into arcanophobic isolation. The Ungerdaler lands shatter into bickering fiefdoms after loosely uniting to throw out the Ordorians, led by Sigismund I. This great leader forged the basic concept of a broader Ungerdaler identity and, while he failed to unite the bickering princedoms into a consolidated political identity, he managed to roughly unite the people religiously by promoting the ‘big six’ - Nurhelm, Anzella, Tergewelft, Bitha, Hutrig and Hieyrenous - to feature prominently in all local pantheons. 87-89 - The Conquest of Fritzhafen Fritzhafen was long a Perkav exclave, is conquered by Hjalmar Ehrenbaum. Local Perkav settlers intermingle with Fritzhafeners, creating a cultural and religious melting pot that produces the deity of Daskellin. 169 - Coronation of the first Hochprinz, Theodor Hamerfeldt. The Union is united through realpolitik. Fritzhafen joins willingly, on the condition that their god becomes officially part of the Ungerdaler religious canon - this being Daskellin. This was agreed upon, which sparked a wave of further requests to add regional gods to the pantheon, threatening to plunge the newly-founded empire into a religious conflict. Dietfried Vichtlas stepped in, collected the various tales about the most common gods, combined and rewrote them into the holy scripture of Septism and formalized which deities are part of the pantheon, for which he became the faith’s first Saint. Many heretical sects still worship local deities to this day, and the Arkanisturm, having left before he was added to the pantheon, refuse to recognize Daskellin, instead of worshipping a heretical sect of Septism that is far more animist. 169-206 - The First Great Inquisition. Led personally by Dietfried Vichtlas, the first inquisition was established as a permanent institution to enforce Septist orthodoxy in the newly established Union of Free Ungerdaler Princes. The main duties of the inquisition were smashing up heretical items, texts, and symbols, and prosecuting those who resisted fealty to the Septist church. Many small communities still paid tribute to minor gods, local spirits, or elements of nature, so the inquisition was deemed necessary to set them straight. Preferably without violence. Vichtlas knew to establish Septism was going to be a centuries-long process, so he included no provisions for dissolving the inquisition. After Vichtlas’ death in 188 and subsequent sainthood, the following Septa wanted to accelerate St. Vichtlas’ plans and ramped up the prosecution's. Lacking Vichtlas’ tactful and gradual approach to conversion, Septa Meidner triggered a wave of heretic uprisings. Though these were swiftly suppressed, Meidner earned the consternation of the Freiprinzen who had considered these “heretics” faithful subjects only years ago. Under pressure from the Union, Meidner begrudgingly halts inquisition activity in 206. The following Septa dissolves the inquisition for the first time in 213. 180 - The Princely Tigers. Freiprinz Joachim Lindst had been gifted tigers by emissaries from a faraway land. Enchanted by the fearsome beasts, he immediately orders that more be procured and breeding programs are started. Though it takes a small fortune and fourteen years, eventually a small colony of tigers calls Teigerholen home. Over the centuries, these fearsome creatures have adapted to their new, cold homeland, growing thick fur to withstand the frost. 237-240 - The Great Perkav Invasion. Warlord Romuald Machniki, Chieftain of Weltrova, unites all Perkav forces under his banner and launches the greatest invasion of the Ungerdaler Union in history. Schneefilde falls within a month, and Wertszvörde comes under siege within a similar timespan, though the city never falls. The horde makes it all the way to Faustburg, but the city’s people rally to the defense and the horde is kept at bay for long enough for Teigerholen’s Tiger Cavalry to shatter Warlord Machniki’s army, turning a certain victory for the Perkav horde into a massacre. This was the first deployment of the Tiger Cavalry en masse, and Teigerholen earns a fearsome reputation amongst the Perkav tribes that lingers to this day (along with leading House Lindst to rename itself House Teigerhart). 334-346 - First Succession Crisis. Spochwald was leading the Orthodox side against Wistingen which led the Heretical site. Infuriated by the so-called ‘ascension’ of the pagan god Daskellin to the ranks of the Six, Freiprinz Otto von Lübinger unites the anti-Septics opposition and plunges the realm into civil war. The legally elected Hochprinz, Dietmar Erlemanzer of Spochwald, leads a coalition of Septist forces against the heretics, burning down the palace of the von Lübingers, built around a holy site to the Six. Though this permanently shatters the moral authority of the Sixist Curch, many Septists are outraged at the destruction of a site sacred to six of the Seven. 347-365 - The Second Great Inquisition "the Cruel Inqusition" Septa Adenauer uses the authority invested in him by the destruction of the Sixthist forces to reform the Septist Inquisition. This time, no heretics would be spared. The Church embarked on a campaign of terror in the former heretic states. Making examples out of heretic leaders and slaughtering entire towns if they resisted. For the first (and only) time, not even the nobility was spared the wrath of the inquisition. With the backing of Septist Freiprinzen, the inquisition had the full authority to interrogate, arrest, and prosecute aristocrats and nobles within the defeated heretic strongholds. Many minor Septist families first came into prominence by deposing their Hexan lords during this period. Among them is the current ruling families of Wertszvörde and Stahlhof. The death toll from the Second Inquisition isn’t known, but most historians agree that it was by far the bloodiest of the Great Inquisitions. 413 - The Triumph of the Altallianz. High King Inskyllithe of Ordoria passes several economic and political reforms that drag the country out of its post-Collapse sluggishness, and Ordorian politics seem to be leaving their self-imposed exile. Concerned by these developments, Hochprinz Melinger of Fritzhafen calls on Under-Emperor Radulfr Huldeskald, invoking the oaths of the Ancient Alliance. The two lords muster their troops and march on Ordoria, it’s young military unable to withstand the onslaught of combined Vergell-Ungerdaler might. In battle, High King Inskyllithe is slain by seven pikemen - only one of which survived, though still losing an arm and an eye - after which his corpse is decapitated and hidden deep within the Vergell mountains, the Dwarves intending to deny the Ordorians a martyr’s shrine. Initially, they planned to cast the body into the ocean, but this caused an outrage among the Union’s officers - according to Hutrig’s priests, it is sacrilege to bury non-seafarers in the murky depths of His Oceans. A counter-proposal by the Humans to burn the body is rejected by the Dwarves on similar grounds. After the total victory of the Human-Dwarven Alliance, Ordoria is split into Western and Eastern halves, in order to permanently cripple the Elven war machine, but the countries quietly reunite over the next few decades once it becomes clear that neither nation is willing to enforce the split. This division has formed the basis for administrative regions with Ordoria for the next centuries. (Developer’s note - Ordoria/Eastern Ordoria can get an event chain/focus tree branch to recover the body) 478 - The Dwarven-Secession Affair. An attempt by Vergellheim to bring Stahlhof into their sphere of influence is discovered by the Hochprinz’s spies. Vergell goods are dumped on the Stahlhoffer market in order to make their economy dependent on the Dwarven Empire, with the profits of these goods being used to fund secessionist propaganda. Using this discovery to pressure Vergellheim to stand aside, Hochprinz Flüchter of Wertszvörde marches on Stahlhof to arrest Freiprinz Logenhelm. Some token efforts at Stahlhoffer mobilization are made, but any forces mustered are quickly routed and Freirpinz Logenhelm willingly capitulates. Though he is stripped of the title of Freiprinz, which is passed onto his uncle, he is spared the headsman’s ax and allowed to live his life under house arrest. 503 - The Battle of Nimmiger. As magic returns to the world, a Demonic host burst through the barrier between worlds and rampages through the north of the Union. A ragged, exhausted army made up of troops from all the Freiprimztümer is fighting a desperate last stand against the Demonic onslaught when a rainbow bridge descends from the skies, and an army of Wizards - the very same wizards that had departed the world to a plane of their own making during the first years of the Age of Void - comes charging over it, banishing the demons and saving the day. Returning to Tharassian permanently, they take up residence in a gargantuan tower built by their magic, with Hochprinz Torwald grants them the lands now known as the Arkanisturm. A few demons escape the battlefield, slipping Northward to found the Cult of the Slaying Word. 503-509 - The Third Great Inquisition This inquisition was called to find the cause of the demon invasion of 503, but it was mostly done to keep the peace after the sudden return of magic to the world. The Bishops assumed (not unreasonably) that the return of demons was intrinsically linked to the sudden return of magic. Though the inquisition was tasked with rooting out the allies of the demons and burning them, they were hardly given the sufficient budget to hunt effectively. St. Vichtlas at the time was embroiled in theological and logistical debates about what the return of magic meant and what to do with new mages. The situation became more complicated when the church discovered that the returning arkanists were heretics. Many bishops began to blame the return of the demons on them, in spite of their central role in defeating the demons at the Battle of Nimmiger. This resulted in one messy confrontation between the inquisition and the arkanists in Holzbrenn, leaving 1 arcanist injured and 7 inquisitors a bloody stain on the ground. This caused the Hochprinz to step in and threaten the Septa with military intervention to protect arkanists unless he declared all returning arkanists exempt from inquisitorial scrutiny. The inquisition, too busy trying to persuade the commonfolk that the end times were not upon them, had no choice but to comply. After 6 years of turning over every stone, burning a few witches, and arresting doomsayers, the Septa unceremoniously called off the Third Inquisition. Centuries later, Septist historians and theologians would excoriate both the Septa and the Third Inquisition for not being more thorough in their investigations. If they had discovered the Freiprinz of Spochwald’s possession by the demon Be’ Kazaal early on, the Second Succession Crisis and the sacking of St. Vichtlas could have been avoided. 541-544 - The Second Succession Crisis After possessing the Freiprinz of Spochwald, the Demon Be’Kazaal begins to work to destabilize the Union, deceiving several Freiprinztümer into supporting him as Hochprinz against the current elderly and incapable Hochprinz Bertrand Askelinger of Stahlhof. As the true Hochprinz is unable to mount an effective resistance, Freiprinzessin Magdalena Maglüber of Wistingen rallies the loyalists to the defense. Initially, the Demonic Hochprinz drives the loyalists back, but when he commands his forces to sack the City of St. Vichtlas and summons Demons in the Tomb of the Saint, all his allies defect and join the coalition arrayed against him. The city of Spochwald is utterly destroyed and Neureik is split off from its lands to form a separate Freiprinztum, crippling the Freiprinztum for centuries. Freiprinzessin Maglüber herself decapitates Be’Kazaal. Once Hochprinz Askelinger passes away, she is unanimously elected Hochprinzessin. *The Magdalenan Era begins. The 1st Golden Age of the Princely Union* at this point, the Union starts to become one of the strongest Political Entities on the Continent. Staying in that place until 799 with the third Succession crisis. 556 - The Altallianz Splits. Pouncing upon the beleaguered Dwarven Empire, Stahlhof and the Arkanisturm ally and seize the Southern mountaintops, home to the Perkafell people, citing abuse against these people as their reason for war. Outraged, Vergellheim demands compensation, but the Union defends the actions of its Freiprinzen. Hochprinzessin Magdelena meets with representatives of Vergellheim, her fierce diplomatic approach forcing the Dwarves to accept the status quo. Already beset on all sides, the Dwarven Empire is forced to drop the issue, but relations between the two countries are forever marred… 604 - Magdalena dies at the age of 91. *End of the Golden Age* ''' ' ' ''' 654 - The Steel Road opens With Vergellheim being desperate for money, it is forced to sell its unrivaled steel to keep the state afloat. It stretches into southern Irinthios (now Tlarthingia), but does not pass the sparsely inhabited swamps and plains of the Riverlands. after another 4 years, Fritzhafen tries to colonize the Riverlands. 6 Years after that Fritzhafen gives up its colonization attempts.' ' 695 - The selection of a new Hochprinz is interrupted and has to be rescheduled due to Erzbischof Lüger of St. Vichtlas and Headmaster Spengler of the Arkanisturm coming to blows in the meeting room. The Arkanisturm still has a shred of cloth which both sides claim to be part of the Erzbischof’s robes. So far, successions of Headmasters have refused to return the cloth, despite St. Vichtlas’ insistence, instead of having framed it over the great doors of the Arcanist's Tower. ''''710 -711 Dispute for the Freiprinz of Teigerholen- The selection of Niclas Krukenburg successor of Freiprinz lead to a dispute when his eldest son Matthias Krukenburg declare himself Freiprinz without a vote from the Freibarone leading to a civil war between him, House Schönbaum, and ( a few other houses) and the rest of the Barony. The war took a turn when Matthias’s younger brother Volker and cousin Simone raised their banner against him. This betrayal leads to Matthias being deposed as Baron, House Schonbaum being annihilated, and the two other Krukenburg-aligned baronies quickly surrendering. ' 799-826 - The Third Succession Crisis. In a historic first, there is a tie between two candidates, with both Freiprinz Melkor Ehrenbaum of Fritzhafen and Freiprinz Enstlig Hörlemayer of Nochwald gaining seven votes. Of note is that, for only the second time in the history of the Union, the Archbishop of the Septist Church votes differently from Freiprinz Ulfred Schober of St. Vichtlas. The root cause of the split is the influx of quality arms and armor from the Steel Road, which Eastern Freiprinztümer have far more of than their western equivalents. Freiprinz Hörlemayer seeks to introduce a tariff on Rimatü steel, while Ehrenbaum advocates free trade. When it comes to light that the Senate has bought the vote of the Church for Ehrenbaum - without the Freiprinz’ knowledge or consent - he is immediately excommunicated. Not a day later it emerges that Freiprinz Hörlemayer has done the exact same thing and is promptly excommunicated as well, with the Church declaring Freiprinzessin Agatha Drecht of Schneefilde the legitimate Hochprinzessin, despite no one voting for her. Fighting breaks out between the Schneefilde, Nochwalder and Fritzhafener factions, with all sides entering a prolonged arms race, importing guns from Skaelinger to pierce Rimatan steel. Eventually, after all the sides are exhausted and wrecked by domestic peasant revolts, the Peace of Nimminger is signed, the neutral Arkanisturm mediating the conflict. The treaty limits the number of arms any individual state is allowed to import based on their population and imposes a very low tariff of 7% - far lower than the 23% that Hörlemayer proposed, but still high enough to anger the Fritzhafener Senate - on Rimatan Steel. Additionally, Freiprinz Max Mustermann of Neureik is settled on as a compromise candidate, having nominally supported Freiprinzessin Drecht but taking no actions to enforce her claim, thus leaving him the only one with no blood on his hands. He is crowned Hochprinz the very next month - the first Hochprinz to come from Neureik in the history of the Union. The Freiprinzen of St. Vichtlas and Fritzhafen see their influence greatly curtailed, with Freiprinz Schober becoming little more than a spokesman for the Septist Church and Freiprinz Ehrenbaum’s duties being relegated to the Fritzhafen Senate - duties that prove too heavy to bear for the governing body and set the stage for its downfall and the ascension of the Citizen’s Council twenty years later. Freiprinz Hörlemayer is overthrown and replaced by the Eichmann dynasty. 802 - The Invention of Popfgetreide. Isolated by the Third Succession Crisis, the Wizards of the Arkanisturm turn to stranger and stranger experiments without supervision from a Hochprinz, but it is the Halfling Chef Schlimm Pippentrenker that creates what is considered the greatest innovation of the decade - Popfgetreide, kernels of corn, heated in a pot to explode into a new, edible form that goes great with butter or sugar. It becomes a very popular snack among the students of the Arkanisturm and rapidly spreads through the entire Freiprinztum, gradually stretching further after the war ends to become a favorite snack of all Ungerdaler citizens. 869-877 - The Fourth Great Inquisition “Hex Scare” St. Vichtlas receives disturbing reports of peasants turning to heresy and attacking church and private property. It seems the widespread devastation and trauma caused by the Third Succession Crisis had shattered the faith of those most affected by the war. Septist spies report peasants chucking Septist holy books, raiments, and icons into great bonfires before stripping naked and dancing around them while singing pre-unification folk-songs; only to vanish in the night, leaving their villages nothing but ghost towns. In all this chaos, Septa Kirchoff II sees an opportunity to repair the Septist church’s legitimacy while putting the clergy to the task of defending the faith for once instead of their pocketbooks. From his elevated stage in St. Vichtlas, Kirchoff II declares a fourth great crusade. He bemoans a great moral threat tearing at the heart of the Princely Union from within, threatening to let loose all the manner of very real demons unto the pious nation. This is a problem only the church has the power to remedy. No expenses are spared; every holy order in the Union is deployed somewhere, even if just for show. Random searches are conducted. The orders begin arresting men, women, and children just on the mere suspicion that they are heretics. For many inquisitors, a sin like adultery or petty theft was nigh indistinguishable from heresy. Non-humans were swept up by the inquisition too, in spite of not following any branch of Sept- or Hex- ism, heretical or not. Early on, there was a rumor that heretics identified themselves with a hexagon symbol somewhere on their person or in their places of residence. Anyone found with Hexagonal tattoos, jewelry, or furniture was arrested and brutally interrogated. Coerced confessions were common and invariably fatal. In the event an order came across a community that was verifiably heretical, the entire town’s population was to be put to the sword. This did not happen nearly as often as in previous inquisitions, but it happened at least once in every year of the scare. The openly heretical Arkanisturm and the increasingly progressive and cosmopolitan Fritzhafen both issued furious condemnations of the ghastly inquisition and demanded an immediate cessation of any inquisitorial activities. Enraged at Fritzhafen’s sudden betrayal but confident in their forces, St. Vichtlas scoffed at their objections, assuming they had complete control of the narrative like every previous inquisition. They were mistaken. In the intervening years, advances in printing technology led to an explosion of publications and journalism independent from both church and state. Sketches and first-hand accounts of the inquisition conveyed the carnage to a wider audience than ever before. Though the church’s fear campaign remained effective in the countryside, it was completely nullified among literate urban folk. Soon, protests and riots against the random searches forced quartering, show trials and executions erupted across the Union. Wistingen and Wertszvörde, where the inquisition was bloodiest, practically became ungovernable. Much to St. Vichtlas’ dismay, kidnapping, torturing, and executing sons, fathers, sisters, and mothers for owning a table with 6 points is not an ideal way of endearing the church to the populace. Soon even mayors and petty barons began calling on the inquisition to cease. This was growing out of hand and Kirchoff knew it. He drew up a reconciliation plan to end the random searches and town burnings and put the remaining prisoners on trial with the intention of acquitting the vast majority of them over the course of several years. This plan was scrapped the moment Kirchoff heard a report of a string of mysterious assassinations of high-level inquisitors and even a famous and well respected Order commander. The fact that even the inquisitors couldn’t figure out who was committing these murders spooked Kirchoff and a good number of bishops. Some interpreted these murders as divine retribution for the inquisition’s miscarriage of justice. Most just agreed that the inquisition was too much-damned trouble than it was worth. In a grand proclamation, Kirchoff declared all prisoners of heresy absolved of sin and forgiven by the Seven for their transgressions, and released them on mass. At once, all the negative energy that had been built up for nearly a decade dispersed in a revelatory wave across the Union. Festivals and days-long celebrations were held in city streets as victims reunited with their tearful loved ones. Some princes and princessinnen participated as well, proclaiming heresy vanquished, and the times of inquisitions done with once and for all. In the aftermath of the great inquisition, the elector princes narrowly passed a resolution that established princely oversight for any and all inquisition-related activities.